Month: February 2013

Don’t Just Change the Rules, Change the Game

Several studies have shown superior software development success rates when using an agile approach like Scrum or Kanban versus a waterfall approach. Does using a waterfall approach to develop software cause many projects to fail? Conversely, does using an agile approach cause projects to succeed? I wish it was that simple. Ultimately people cause projects […]

Hire the Best People By Focusing on What Matters

In my post “Don’t Just Prioritize User Needs, Prioritize the Process Too”, I discussed the need to prioritize the elements and artifacts of the software development process. In this post, I’m turning my attention to the hiring process. When your team needs to bring another developer on board, what do you look for? If yours […]

Change Is Good, Upheaval Is Not

You want your software development team to switch from using a waterfall approach to using an agile approach like Scrum, Kanban, Lean or XP. Should you do it gradually or go cold turkey (all at once)? Before you answer that question there are a few things to consider. Let’s walk through an example. This will […]

Software Projects Fail for the Wrong Reasons

I’d like to discuss failure — specifically, software development projects that fail. Has it ever happened to a project team you were on? If so, it was probably not for the reason you think. Before we can examine this further, we need to agree on what constitutes failure. I’ll offer my definitions and you can […]

10 Rules for Lean and Agile Thinking

Many companies have adopted or are considering adopting an agile software development approach using the principles of Scrum, Kanban, XP or Lean. Regrettably, their goal is often to reduce time-to-market but agile methods are not designed to reduce development time. These methods are focused on quality and aligning development teams with customers. If time-to-market is […]